Kaila
by Raven Darthvana
Summary: This started out as a college assignment by a friend. I was so fascinated with the concept I asked her permission to write a story around it as a unique fallout character. It asks the question, what would happen if we somehow transferred a sophisticated AI into a human body? Would it be able to learn?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Kaila opened her eyes carefully, testing the strength of her vision. The darkness slowly faded, too slowly for her liking, but at a steady, predictable pace. As the light pierced the center of her visual field and began to chase the darkness to the edges, she focused on the flood of colors. She began to identify them, one by one, pulling from descriptions she had learned and matching them to what her new eyes could now see.

A man stood over her, and she quickly identified the white of his lab coat, the soft grey of his hair, and the deep green of his eyes. She peered closer, trying to determine the exact color of them, but either her new vision wasn't strong enough or her current knowledge of color subtleties wasn't complete enough. Her brow wrinkled as she reluctantly filed away the notion for later revie. It was only one small incomplete piece of information. She could revisit it later.

Her eyes scanned the brightening room, taking in the not quite sharp corners where too many layers of paint had gathered, long tubes of fluorescent lights overhead that flickered slightly, the bright red and green lights blinking in rhythmic succession on a nearby monitor.

She turned at the sound of a shuffle nearby. "Not yet," the doctor warned as a thin, haggard woman reached to turn on another light. "Give her time to adjust to the room first."

The assistant nodded and dropped her arm, but otherwise didn't move from her position. Kaila watched her for a moment, examining her closely, taking in every detail of her rapidly graying hair, the face that was just beginning to show signs of aging, lips that were pressed tight as if she either had nothing to say, or was trying to keep from saying what she was thinking.

Kaila tried to sit and gasped, a strange involuntary sound that came deep from her throat. Either her arms were too weak to push her up, or she wasn't using them correctly. The doctor must have noticed her attempts because he leaned forward and picked up a remote near the bed. Kaila watched him with interest, noting that he seemed unusually careful to avoid touching her. The assistant waited sullenly, shifting back and forth on tired legs.

The bed jerked and Kaila grunted as her body shifted along with the bed, contorting her from a long, laid out, comfortable position to a sitting one, not nearly as comfortable. As the bed came to a nearly vertical stop, her head flooded with pain and wiped away all traces of her ability to think. Her eyes slammed shut and she heard a soft moan. The darkness, now welcome, encased her and she sat quietly with her eyes closed, trying to orient herself, to find a stable starting point to try again.

Even with no new visual stimulation she found the world was not quite as calm as it would seem. She couldn't focus through the bombardment. A breeze danced over the skin of her exposed arms and she shivered. Was that cold? Or was it hot? She didn't have a reference, there was no way to understand what she felt. There was a small noise, then another, then a third. Was that a rustle of clothing? A shuffle of leather soles on a hard tiled floor? The soft hum of a machine? Maybe a small rodent scurrying through the walls! She didn't know. Shouldn't she know?

The pain slowly etched away, and cognizance began to return. She opened her eyes slowly and the world came back into focus. It was easier to understand the things she could see.

She focused on the doctor and filtered out the surrounding flood of information. She wasn't able to handle all of it efficiently enough. He only watched her silently, waiting.

Replaying bits of the last few moments in a slower, more organized fashion, she realized she had made a sound. It was easily reproducible, she reasoned, and seemed an important skill to master quickly. She opened her mouth, and tried to speak, but only a rush of air left her throat. She opened her mouth and tried again. She frowned and tried to remember how to vocalize but the instructions didn't seem to line up properly with the implementation.

She tried again, but no sound. Frustrated, she gritted her teeth.

She glanced at the doctor and found his intrigued stare strangely unsettling. She tried to lift her arm but it didn't respond properly and she was barely able to make it twitch. She looked to the woman, who had stopped fidgeting and now watched with a strange look on her face. Kaila squinted and looked carefully, following the lines of her forehead, her uncomfortable body language, and determined it was a face of pity.

The doctor put his hand low on his throat, opened his mouth in a definite "o" shape, and made a low hum. She opened her mouth in the same shape, and repeated, then repeated again. On the third try she learned to engage her vocal chords and produced a small moan. Then a vowel. Then she was pronouncing all the vowels, moving her mouth and lips in patterns she had learned before.

After a while, she could repeat various learned sentences in technically correct manner. It was an accomplishment, and she filed the information away. Then she looked to the doctor, waiting. What did he want her to do now?

He tilted his head to the side, still watching her, not saying much of anything. His face was very hard to read, and she couldn't tell if he was bored or disinterested or simply had little emotion to show.

"Who are you?" the doctor asked. Kaila analyzed his face, but he seemed to show nothing more than a vague interest in her answer.

"I am the first Kinesthetic Artificial Intelligence Learning Agent," she replied matter of factly. Surely he should know this, as he gave her the designation. "I was designed as a test to see if Artificial Intelligence can be taught to learn human logic involving intrapersonal and natural intelligence through kinesthetic methods involving the limitations of the human body."

She frowned at her own robotic speech patterns, noticing that they didn't seem to have the same intonation and resonance that his did, and feeling oddly disquieted by it.

"I didn't ask what you are. I asked who."

Who? She frowned, trying to process the question. Who - a word that identified a particular person from others. Who was she? Was she unique? It wasn't a concept she had considered before, although as she looked at the tiny flaws in the physical human body she now inhabited, she supposed that she was. Her mind whirled in that slow, intricate, strange fashion that was unique to biological intelligence.

She looked up at him with a slightly wavering glance. "I am Kaila."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"You are Kaila", the doctor responded with just the slightest hint of interest. "Do you know where you are, Kaila?", he asked.

Kaila considered this question, her mind whirling, wavering, taking in the room. The high fan overhead, producing a breeze against her skin, not unpleasant. The flickering, fluorescent lighting, muted but bright to her new eyes, the creaking sound of shifting metal. A memory floated to the surface but she couldn't find a reference to this place. The man waited patiently. Finally she looked at him. "No.", she said.

"You are in the bowels of Rivet City. Does that mean anything to you?", he asked. She searched her memory, that jumble of disconnected information that somehow made sense when she sought specific information, but found nothing. "No", she said.

"Rivet City is the remains of an old warship from before the war. It now houses an entire community and is fortified to withstand attack. You were sent here to find a runaway android and return him to your masters from the Commonwealth, but you were destroyed. Only your intelligence unit was salvaged. Do you understand?"

Kaila's mind staggered at the influx of memories. What was wrong? What was this she was doing? Memories, thoughts from the past, her thoughts, other thoughts,were flooding her mind, stultifying, frightening, flashes of fear, explosions, fire searing, water closing over her, choking, can't breathe, cold, so cold, the searing flames, the heat, terror. The contradictions slammed at her, her mind screamed, her body stiffened. She shut down.

Kaila slowly opened her eyes. It was quiet, the only sounds the hum of the fan, the creaking of the ship. She was lying down again, covered with a soft blanket. She turned her head to the side, looking about cautiously. Only a low light illuminated the doctor, sprawled next to her in a chair, fast asleep. How long had she been blanked out? She tried to move, to sit up. This time her arms cooperated a little bit as she concentrated, trying to remember how to move them. She slowly pushed herself to an upright position. She stared for a moment at the blinking monitor, feeling it should mean something to her, but she didn't know what. She felt, what? What did she feel? Tired. She felt tired. She lay back down and closed her eyes.

The voices reached her, filtering into her consciousness. She recognized the doctor's sound, but didn't think she had ever heard the other one before. "How is she doing, doctor?", the strange voice asked. "I'm not sure. She just shut down last night. This morning she was stirring, I think she was dreaming, so maybe she's out of shut down anyway." "You have to remember, doctor, she had a traumatic experience. Maybe her mind's that of an android but she has the host's human emotions and the brain was still intact. We don't know how much information it retained. We have to be careful not to overwhelm her." "I get that, Harkness. Now why don't you just let me get on with it? I'll call you when she's ready."

Kaila peeked open an eye to peer at the men. The other one, the strange one, something seemed different about him. She could sense it, feel it. Were they talking about her? She opened her eyes and looked directly at the men.

"I see you're awake.", the doctor said, turning to her. "How do you feel this morning, Kaila?" How did she feel. She considered. "I feel fine." She sat up without effort. "Who are you?", she asked the doctor. She knew what he was. She wanted to know who he was, what his individual designation was. He grinned. "My name is Dr. Pinkerton.", he said, "and this is Harkness." She stared at him. Harkness said gently, "The proper response is 'I am pleased to meet you.'"

Kaila absorbed this bit of information. "I am pleased to meet you.", she said slowly, pronouncing each word distinctly. She glanced down at herself. "I seem to be very small.", she said, puzzled. "Do you want to see?", Dr. Pinkerton asked holding out a mirror. Kaila looked into the mirror. Beautiful hazel eyes flecked with gold looked back at her from a small, very young, lovely face. Soft golden fuzz sprouted from her nearly bald scalp, a large scar marring the left side. She lowered the mirror. "I am a female child?", she inquired.

"Yes. Do you have any idea how long you were shut down before I found this body for you?", Pinkerton replied. "No." "Over 3 years. It wasn't easy getting a body that was still functional after the brain was destroyed." "Oh. You killed a child to give me a body?" The question held no judgment. It was just a question. Harkness and Pinkerton glanced at each other. Kaila had no moral base to operate from.

"No, that would be wrong. The child was only 8 when she drowned. The body was brought back to life by a doctor, but her brain was not funtioning, so he contacted me. I paid the parents a fair sum for the body." "That is acceptable?" Kaila asked. "That is.", Dr. Pinkerton agreed. "Once the brain is gone the person no longer exists even if the body keeps going. Without your intelligence unit this brain would have no functioning at all." She filed the information for later use.

"Are you hungry?", Dr. Pinkerton asked. Hungry. What did hungry feel like? Harkness brought over a bowl containing a conglomeration of warm biological substances. Kaila felt a strange stirring in her pit as the scents reached her. "I think so.", she said. Harkness held out the bowl. When Kaila reached to take it he said, "Say 'thank you, Dad'", Harkness said. "Thank you, Dad.", she said, then added, "Is your designation also Dad?" Harkness laughed. She filed the sound for further consideration. "It is my title, but only for you. I am going to be your father and teach you how to be human." "Okay.", Kaila said, taking the bowl. From in her memory she pulled the observation of watching humans eat. She lifted the spoon.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: To be human

"Come on, Kaila, time to get up. You'll be late for school." "Ah, Dad", the little blonde opened one eye and peered at her father, "why do I have to go? I already know this stuff." Harkness smiled at the childish voice. Kaila was learning to be a child. "Yes, I know you have the knowledge, but do you yet understand how to be a human? What will you do if one of the boys pulls your pigtail?"

Kaila sat up and considered her Dad. "Punch him?" He laughed. "Maybe. It would depend on the circumstance, wouldn't it? It could be he just likes you." "Then why would he pull my hair." "Because he's a 9 year old boy and that's what they do. They're learning to be human to." "Oh, okay, I guess I'll go. What's for breakfast?"

Actually Kaila didn't find school boring even though she already knew all the material the teacher went over. She found observing the humans fascinating and it wasn't easy learning their rules. They were so complicated and contradictory. The fuzzy, interconnected often inconsequential thoughts that passed through her human brain were difficult to process. But she was learning. She was getting better at the right responses and what she thought were the right feelings. One thing she learned fairly quickly was that the other children didn't like it when she gave all the right answers to the teacher's questions. It seemed to be more acceptable to be wrong sometimes.

The body around her had changed so gradually that Kaila hardly noticed at first. "Dad." She was studying herself in the mirror. "I don't like my hair. Can I see the hairdresser tomorrow?" He glanced over at her, barley looking up from the paper he was reading. "You look fine to me." "Missy Dressen has her hair done. Michael said it looks freakin'. Why can't I?", she pouted. Harkness lowered his paper and looked at Kaila. She was pouting? "How old are you now, Kaila?" he asked. She had learned when someone asked her age they were referring to the body, not her IU. "Thirteen next month. Don't you remember, Dad?" she asked, rolling her eyes exasperatedly.

Harkness replied "Of course I do honey. Sure, go ahead and get your hair done. Just tell Butch to put it on the tab." He suddenly realized she was becoming a young woman. He assumed freakin' meant it looked good to young Michael, which meant his daughter cared what young Michael thought. How was he ever going to handle this as a single father? "So how long has it been since you had your hair done, Dad? Everyone knows his son Ricky is the one to go to." "Sure, fine, whatever." Harkness picked up his paper.

The ancient airplane deck was littered with bodies. Kaila whirled, ducking and weaving, thrusting and cutting, mowing a line through her adversaries. The last one standing circled, watching her, warily weaving his knife in a hypnotic pattern, attempting to distract her. She crouched low, circling with him, the sweat pouring into her eyes not distracting her anymore than the weaving knife. She lunged forward. She grunted as she felt the stab against her gut.

"You're dead." her Dad said, retracting the weapon. "You're all dead." he said to the bodies. "Come on, get up. Let's go over what happened here. You, Jeremy, what happened to you?" The young man abashedly rose. "Kaila broke my neck.", he said sulkily. "Kaila." Harkness turned to find his 16 year old daughter standing by the rail, stock still, her face blank.

"Kaila!", he said again, impatiently. She turned toward him, her eyes focusing. "Oh sorry, Dad," she said. He frowned at her. "We're going over the lesson now, Kaila." She walked over to join the other students. "Now", Harkness said, turning toward them. "Let's figure out what happened and how we can avoid getting dead for real."

The lesson over, Harkness walked with his daughter to their apartment. "How do you think it went?", she asked as they entered the room. "Good enough. They're learning. What did the scavenger want?" Harkness had known for many years now that Kaila could communicate with the scavenger's Pip-boy or others with radio devices such as the Brotherhood. As a young girl it had been quite useful to her growing up. The scavenger had helped her through many trying and confusing times as she had changed and grown, answering her questions about sex and boys and her changing body without the hesitation her father usually showed. This transmission must have been important for Kaila to allow it to interrupt a training session.

Scavenger, trader, warrior, The Lone Wanderer, she had many names. Harkness called her friend. "She has to talk to you, Dad. She said she has good intelligence there's going to be an attack and she needs your help. Dad", Kaila leaned forward intently. "What are we going to do?" "Nothing until I've had a chance to talk to the scavenger."


	4. Chapter 4

chapter 4: Looking for Dad

Kaila was worried about her father. He had been gone for over 2 weeks now. She hadn't been included in his conference with the scavenger, but she had gathered she was putting together a team to stop an invasion. Kaila was annoyed, aggravated and hurt that she hadn't been allowed to go. She was 17 after all, and the top of her class.

She talked Michael into going with her into DC while her Dad was gone. Of course, it wasn't as wild and wooly as it had been just a generation ago, but that didn't mean it was safe! They would have to walk since, like most people, they couldn't afford a horse or motor bike and they had never learned to ride a bicycle.

He came to her room early and knocked on the door. Kaila opened it without a word of greeting. She picked up the pack her Dad had given her for her 17th birthday just before he left. She shoved the shotgun into the scabbard on the back and checked that her .45 was in her belt and her combat knife secure. Michael nodded approval at her wasteland leather armor. Kaila didn't tell him she felt comfortable in her attire. Her IU was stirring with memories of similar attire, similar armament and a thought that she had once been designed to be a warrior and hunter. She smiled at Michael and they walked out of the room and out of Rivet City.

"Why do you want to go into the city?", Michael asked as they strode past the old super mutant camp. It had been deserted for years now, moldering into the ground. No one wanted to go up there where the giant bodies had been left to rot, now skeletons slowly scattering on the ground, picked clean by scavenger birds and rats long ago.

She glanced at the Memorial off to her left. It was heavily guarded as it housed the Waters of Life. Only those that worked there were allowed in, though her father had gotten permission to take her and show her the control area where the great scientist had died. The GECK activation had cleared the radiation from the chamber allowing the rescue of his daughter. Kaila knew the scavenger now avoided it as though it were the Pit of Hell. Maybe it was.

"I'd like to see some of the city, of course. Dad hasn't taken me in often. But I'm really just trying to get up North to see if I can pick up some information. I don't know what's happening, Michael. No one will tell me anything and I'm worried about Dad." She didn't tell him she was hoping to get within range of some transmissions. Her range was limited after all by distance and the number of satellites still functioning to bounce the signals from. He didn't know she had an IU, let alone it could pick up and transmit communications. He just thought she was weird sometimes. At least that's what he said. 'Prescient' or some such nonsense.

They strode along the trader's path, now fairly well travelled and safer than most roads. They passed a Brotherhood contingent patrolling the road, keeping the peace. Small shops had sprung up along the route catering to everything a traveler could need. It wasn't nearly so safe after dark though.

It was getting late. Traffic had thinned and then ceased as the sun went down. Kaila and Michael hadn't spotted another person for two blocks. "We need to find a place to spend the night.", Michael said. "That would be nice, but I don't have enough caps to pay for a room. Do you?" "You know I don't. We'll have to look for a deserted building and there aren't so many of those anymore. Wait a minute, hold it, did you hear that?", Michael asked, coming to full attention.

Kaila had an IU, but her senses were only as good as her host body. Michael had sharper hearing. She stood still and listened. "I think there's someone in that alley up ahead.", he whispered. "Come on." They moved up against the building and slipped forward quietly, shotguns at the ready.

As they approached the alley the whooping scream alerted Kaila. The raiders burst from the alley, howling and screaming. Kaila's vision centered on one raising an arm. Hand grenade! It burst into her brain and her body reacted. The shotgun came up and the raider went down. She whirled, blasting the one with the rifle. She barely registered the bark of a shotgun next to her as the next raider was already on her, too close to fire her weapon. She dropped it, grasping the arm with the huge knife, twisting around, gutting the man with the momentum. She dropped and rolled, coming up with her shotgun, swiftly taking in the scene.

Michael was crouching beside her, shotgun still raised, sweeping for any more movement. There wasn't any. He twitched, listening intently, then lowered the gun and came to his feet. He turned to Kaila. "Are you all right?", he asked. "Yeah, I don't think any of this blood is mine. What about you?" "I'm good." He was staring at the corpses. "I've never killed a man before.", he said shakily. Kaila looked around at the death. She felt afraid. Afraid of what she had done without even thinking, afraid of the memory floating at the edges of her IU. Memories of many battles, many killings. Is this what she was?

She knew Raiders were drug crazed and vicious with no morals at all. Their code was simple: live, kill, do whatever you wanted, die. This group had died. She had helped kill them. She started shaking.

"Hey", Michael said, taking her in his arms. "It's all right Kaila. They would have killed us. We had to do it. We're just lucky we were so well trained by your Dad. If we had hesitated even a bit we'd be dead." "I know", she sobbed. "I can't help it. I just…. I know." "It's all right, baby. You'll be all right.", he said soothingly, holding her until the tears stopped and she quit shaking. She pulled away from him. "I'm sorry. I'm all right, really. Here, let's see if we can get anything."

Not looking at him she bent down, swiping at her face, unaware she smeared the blood there with her tears into a macabre war paint. She gingerly searched the filthy, foul smelling man, picked up the knife, wiped it on the strange attire the corpse wore, and moved on. Michael stared at her for a moment before joining her. They moved down the alley with their scavenge and found the door leading into a solid building. It was obviously the raiders hide away.

The room was small and foul with the smell of death lingering over everything. Bodies and parts of bodies in various stages of decomposition littered the room. Kaila gagged as they surveyed the carnage, the odor of rot and filth almost palpable in the airless room. Still, there was a lot of stuff here. They filled their packs with weapons, ammo and food items as much as they could. They got a good haul in meds. Raiders lived on meds but they didn't plan on using them. They would bring in some good caps. "I can't stay here.", Kaila said, nearly vomiting when she opened her mouth to speak. "Me either.", Michael agreed. They took what they could and left.

Not a block up the road was a bar with rooms to let. It was still open. They had salvaged enough caps from the raiders and the foul room to bring their funds to a sufficient amount to rent a safe room for the night. The proprietor wasn't especially comforted by their bloody appearance and the stench of death on them, but he had seen worse. They seemed like nice polite kids.

"There's a bathroom down the hall," Kaila said. "Let's take turns standing guard so we can get a bath. Me first!", she grinned. Michael looked at her blood streaked hair and smeared face and agreed. He stood guard until she came out wrapped only in an old tattered towel, tugging at her wet tangled hair with an old comb. She took the .45 from him and leaned against the wall. "Your turn." He pulled his gaze away from her mostly exposed form and went into the bathroom.

The bedroom was small with only one bed but a good solid door and strong lock. At least the bed was clean and had real pillows and a warm blanket. The nights were getting cool. Kaila dropped her towel and climbed under the blanket. Michael stood uncertainly by the bed. Kaila looked up at him. "Well, come on, get in. There isn't any other place to sleep, is there?" "But you don't have anything on.", he said nervously. Kaila grinned. "No, I don't. You've been trying to see me naked for the last two years. Now's your chance. Come on." She patted the bed.

Michael dropped his towel and quickly climbed in beside her. She pulled the blanket up over them. She moved against him. "Kaila", he said, taking her uncertainly in his arms. "Make love to me, Michael.", she said softly. He studied her upturned face. "You haven't done this before, have you?", he asked. "No. We could have died today. We could die tomorrow. I want to live. I want to have sex with you. You do want to don't you? I could always ask Bobby Wilson.", she teased.

He growled, his arms tightening around her. "You wouldn't", he said. She laughed. "No, I wouldn't", she agreed and pulled his head down to hers. He was slow and careful. Her human body flooded with emotions, responded to his caresses, to the feel of his body beneath her fingers, along her length. Her IU absorbed this information, these new sensations, but no memory came to the surface. She had been built for war, not love. She was learning a new way.

Michael held her gently afterword. "Are you all right?", he asked concernedly. She laughed softly. "More than all right. The girls were right about you." "The girls?", he queried, chagrined. This time she really laughed. "Sure, girls talk too, you know. They said you were good. I figured you've been my best friend all my life, I should find out for myself."

"Not all your life. I've only known you since you were eight when your Dad brought you back from the wasteland. You don't remember much from before then, do you? You were such a quiet little thing, you hardly talked. You just seemed to watch everyone, like you were afraid you were going to do the wrong thing. I wanted to protect you." "And you only 10 years old! I was so lucky to have you for my friend. Dad said he didn't want me to remember, that I was traumatized and might go crazy if I tried to remember. I don't know. Sometimes I try, but they're just like ghosts in my mind. Sometimes one comes and goes away, sometimes it's just a feeling. Like when we killed the raiders. I felt like I KNEW something, and it scared me. I'm glad you were there, Michael." "I'll always be there, honey. I love you.", he said. She smiled at him. "I love you too."

Kaila stretched, yawned and opened her eyes. The morning light was bright, coming in the window at a slant that told her the morning was well advanced. She turned to take in Michael, just coming awake beside her. She leaned over him, grinning. "I like having sex with you.", she declared. "Want to do it again?" He blinked, grinned, and pulled her down to him.

They left the bar before noon. Since they were out of caps they ate some of the food they had scavenged from the raiders. They had cleaned their armor in the bathroom to remove most of the blood and stench but the stains remained, marking them as wasteland wanderers. Kaila's beautiful blonde hair gleamed like a golden target in the bright sunshine. Michael felt they should try to get a helmet for her or at least a hat to hide her hair.

They weren't far from the Citadel. They would trade off their scavenge there for caps and supplies. Kaila had been picking up transmissions but nothing she found informative. It was like being in a room full of people at a party and trying to find the one conversation that was relevant. There wasn't anything being said on the radios concerning the mission her Dad was on with the Scavenger.

After stopping to trade they went on North. They had a few caps now and more ammo and food. They were striking out into the wasteland toward the Northwest. It might not be as wild as in their fathers' day, but it still had many dangerous elements.


End file.
